A potential for data loss has been found when running VMWare consolidated backups (VCB) in NetBackup 6.5GA and above. Drives which are excluded from the proxy client are also excluded from the Virtual Machines that the proxy client hosts.

Problem

A potential for data loss has been found when running VMWare consolidated backups (VCB) in NetBackup 6.5GA and above. Drives which are excluded from the proxy client are also excluded from the Virtual Machines that the proxy client hosts.

Solution

Overview:A potential for data loss has been
found when running VMWare consolidated backups (VCB) in NetBackup 6.5GA and
above. Drives that are excluded from the proxy client are also excluded
from the Virtual Machines that the proxy client hosts.

What is
affected:The following versions of NetBackup are affected on all
supported Windows Client platforms:

- NetBackup Server / Enterprise
Server 6.5GA and above.

Note: Due to
the fact that a fix is being investigated, it is not yet confirmed which
NetBackup Release Update will contain a fix or if the next Major Release of
NetBackup will be affected by this issue. Efforts are currently underway
to provide an emergency fix. As with all releases, please view the readme
as releases are made in order to confirm any known issues.

How to determine if affected:Data loss
has been known to occur if ALL of the following conditions are
met:

- NetBackup Server / Enterprise
Server 6.5GA and above is being run on the client.

- A Backup policy is set to
FlashBackup-Windows, using either a Type 0 (full or incremental) or a
Type 3 (incremental)virtual machine backup type.

- One or more drive letters are
configured to be excluded on the proxy client.

- These same drive letters exist
on one or more Virtual Machines that are backed up with this policy via the
proxy client.

If the above conditions are met, excluded drive letters
will be skipped on the proxy client as expected, but also for any Virtual
Machines that the proxy client hosts.

Example:Suppose that
drives C: and D: are set to be excluded from an affected Windows
proxy client that hosts 4 Windows virtual machines. If the conditions
above are met, C: and D: will be excluded from the Windows proxy
client as expected. However, the C: and D: drives within all
of the 4 VM's hosted from this proxy client will also be
excluded.

Workaround:At this time, the suggest workaround
is to not perform drive exclusions of affected Windows clients until a fix can
be applied.

Formal Resolution:

The formal
resolution to this issue (Etrack 1876316) will be included in the
following releases:

- NetBackup 7.0, currently
available.

- NetBackup 6.5 Release
Update 6 (6.5.6), scheduled for release during the second quarter of
2010.

To ensure this issue is not exhibited on any affected versions, or
potentially affected future releases, it is strongly recommended to utilize the
workaround above. Also, please note that when a fix is available and
applied, it will prevent this issue from initially occurring but cannot recover
data that was skipped due to this issue.

Best
Practices:Symantec strongly recommends the following best
practices:

1. Always perform a full backup
prior to and after any changes to your environment

2. Always make sure that your
environment is running the latest version and patch level

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Please note that this document is a translation from English, and may have been machine-translated. It is possible that updates have been made to the original version after this document was translated and published. Veritas does not guarantee the accuracy regarding the completeness of the translation. You may also refer to the English Version of this knowledge base article for up-to-date information.

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